Bicycle theft charge rate less than 3%

There’s quite an interesting article on the BBC News website. It’s ostensibly about cyclists tracking down and reclaiming their stolen bikes, but also talks about the charge rate for bicycle theft having remained below 3% since 2019, which is pretty depressing & I’d imagine that the level of reclaimed bikes is pretty low too. There’s a handy little graph where you can select your local force to see if they buck the trend (mine, Avon & Somerset, don’t)..

Worth a read if you’ve got a few minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crl873p51zro

GMP is above average and on the way up! The mind boggles.

I would be curious to see any stats behind the “growing trend”. Or is it just an illusion after seeing recent cases in social media?

There’s another article on the BBC today suggesting that bike theft is putting people off cycling.

It also mentions that only 1.35% of theft reported in Kent lead to a change.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5w1q5y0l5o

It definitely puts me off cycling for many local journeys like just popping to the shops, and letting the kids out and riding their bikes in case they leave them for 5 seconds unattended

I had a clunker for riding to the station as I didn’t want to ride one of the nicer ones.  Even that one got nicked.

So about the same charge rate as other thefts?

It’s very location dependent. A mate lives in a nice area of Manchester and has had his bike shed emptied twice, and his kids have had bikes taken off them when out at the park. I leave my bikes outside the village shop/cafes/pubs here with a scissor thin cable lock and never had a problem.

It also depends on bikes – eldest got a cheap beater bike and a D lock and had no problems in two years in Cambridge, while “nicer ” bikes got taken a lot. There’s folk leave beater bikes all day at Ilkeston station with no problems, I’d never do that with one of mine.

There should be a market here for euro style city bikes with the built in wheel locks as sensible and unattractive modes of transport.

I told my criminology class about the chance of getting a bike back.

Next day got my bike nicked.

I reported it to the police and asked if I was likely to.see it again. ” You never know”.

So I use that for code for NO now!

I told my criminology class about the chance of getting a bike back.

Next day got my bike nicked.

A whole class of prime suspects right there! You know their addresses, right? 😉